


Growing Pains

by bitboozy



Series: Domesticated [21]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Gen, Poor Daisy is all aboard the struggle bus and taking Tom & Fred with her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-17 11:16:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20620142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitboozy/pseuds/bitboozy
Summary: Daisy and Tom are left to babysit Fred when Alec and Ellie go out for dinner. But Daisy's got other plans.





	1. Chapter 1

“I WILL FULL ON SLICE YOUR HEAD CLEAN OFF.”

Daisy does not even flinch at Tom’s threat. She’s confident she can win. (She almost always does.) She simply concentrates, leaning forward, eyes glued to the telly.

She and Tom are playing a video game on the couch, while Fred sits on the floor, coloring on top of the coffee table.

Alec and Ellie appear in the doorway. He’s wearing a casual suit, but tailored. She’s got on an informal beige cotton dress.

“All right, this is us off,” Ellie announces.

Fred immediately jumps up and throws his arms around her legs. Alec’s got his eyes on Tom and Daisy.

“You two have everythin’ you need?” He confirms, and not for the first time.

“We’re fine, Dad,” Daisy replies without looking at him.

Alec shoves his hands into his pockets and continues staring at them warily. “Fred should be in bed by no later than eight.”

“We know,” Tom says. “TAKE THAT!” 

“When will you be back?” Fred asks, and Ellie kneels down to his level.

“Not too late, lovely, but you’ll be fast asleep,” she answers, running her fingers through his hair once or twice.

“_No later than eight_,” Alec repeats. 

“Yeah, we heard you,” Daisy retorts, still very much focused on the television.

Fred throws his arms around Ellie’s neck. “Can I come on your date?”

“Wouldn’t be a _date_, then, would it?” She rubs his back.

“It would be a Fred date,” the boy says.

“We’ll have a Fred date tomorrow,” Ellie compromises. “You, me, Alec, and some 99s, yeah?”

“Stop whining, Fred,” Tom demands. “You get to hang out with me and Daize, this is your lucky night.”

“Boring if you just play video games all night,” Fred says grumpily.

Ellie stands up straight again. “Fred’s right, I’ll not have you two ignoring him all night, do you understand?”

“Just wanna finish this level,” Tom replies. “You’re goin’ down, Daize!”

“Not if you go down first!”

Alec stays in the doorway as Ellie goes to kiss both Tom and Daisy on the top of their respective heads. “Be good, you three,” she tells them. “Back in a few hours. Call Mrs. Latimer if you need something urgent, all right?”

“Okay,” Tom says. “_Bye_." 

Alec reaches for Ellie’s hand and leads her out the door. “We love you!” She calls as he drags her out. 

“Don’t do anythin’ stupid!” Alec calls, from out the door.

Daisy and Tom finish the level, with Daisy emerging victorious, and then thrown down their controllers.

“Want to color with me?” Fred immediately asks them eagerly, sensing an opening.

Daisy stands, grabbing her mobile. “Colin’s goin’ to come by, do some reading for our exams.”

Tom stands and follows her into the kitchen. Fred follows _him_, just because. “Colin’s coming _here_? To the house?” 

“Well, ‘m babysittin’, aren’t I? Can’t meet him anywhere else,” Daisy replies.

Fred is pouting. “Mumma said you had to play with me.”

“Tom will play with you, Fred.”

“Not going to if you’re not!” Tom exclaims. “Anyway d’you really think Colin should be coming over? Your dad would lose it.”

“Probably he’d rather me be _here _with Colin than at his,” Daisy argues.

“Not when _he’s _not here too! You’re still, like, alone with him.”

Daisy starts pulling some snacks out of the kitchen cupboard. “Alone with him all the time.”

“Want a snack too,” Fred announces, following Daisy around underfoot.

Daisy hands Fred the crisps. “What my dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Tom frowns. “Have you met your dad? He’ll figure out _how_ to know and then when he does you better believe he’ll get all sodding angsty about it. And Fred’s not supposed to have crisps this late.”

Fred settles at the table with his crisps.

“Just a few,” Daisy says. “Anyway so you can occupy Fred for a bit, yeah? I’ll come help put him to bed at eight.”

“I know how to put my own brother to bed.”

“Like when have you ever done it?”

Tom folds his arms across his chest. “Colin shouldn’t be coming here. And I’m not playing with Fred if you’re not.”

“Bloody hell, Tom.” Fred gasps that she’s said a bad word. Two, really. “He’s _your _brother.”

Tom stares at her. Then glances at Fred. Then looks back at her. “I mean. He’s. You know, he’s kind of…_your _brother too.” 

“Not ‘til Dad and El get married,” Daisy replies nonchalantly. “Which apparently they’re never gonna do.”

“Yeah, but.” Tom is very much having trouble articulating his feelings, and even Fred seems disturbed by the whole situation. “Alec’s our legal guardian now. So, it’s kind of like…you know. You’re meant to be our sister.”

“Well. ‘m not.”

She exits the kitchen.

*

Alec and Ellie sit across from one another at a posh new restaurant not far up the coast. She looks over the eclectic menu admiringly, and he with mild disgust.

“Good idea, this,” she says, nose in her menu.

Alec shrugs, and reaches for his reading glasses in his jacket pocket. “Graham’s idea really." 

She looks up and chuckles. “Can’t even read a menu now?”

“Quiet,” he growls at her. “The light’s no good in here.”

“Think if we _hadn’t _found his stolen car in the end he’d still have invited us to his restaurant?” She puts her menu down and reaches for her water glass.

“Well, he’d not have given us this gift certificate, certainly.”

Having decided what her order will be, Ellie looks around at the rest of the patrons in the restaurant, taking in the ambiance. “Ugh, tell me we’ll never be one of those couples that sits on the same side of the table.”

He looks up with mild amusement. “You mean one of those couples who can’t keep their hands off one another?”

“_No_, oh please, it’s more than that, it’s…pure narcissism. And just frankly looks like a logistical nightmare. Besides…” She slips her stockinged foot out of her heel and brings it to his leg. “Hands are overrated.”

He puts his menu down and looks at her sternly over the rims of his glasses. “Don’t start that, I do _not _want to end up in a loo stall with you. Again.”

Ellie feigns offense. “That was _once_! And we were still so new.”

He takes a sip of his water. “Lots of people would consider six months still new.”

She scoffs. “Not us. Six months is a bloody lifetime.” 

“Oh, thank you,” he grumbles, taking a sip from his water.

“I mean it in a good way,” she replies earnestly. “And anyway we couldn’t help ourselves then, we were just _exploding_.”

He shifts a bit, looking into his glass. “Still explodin’ over you.”

She blushes, smiling widely. “Stupid.” She reaches for his hand. “Still exploding over you too.”

When they turned into an old married couple, neither of them has any idea.

*

Tom sits in the living room with Fred working on a massive Lego castle. The doorbell rings and within a few seconds, Daisy’s walking past with Colin. They head straight into the kitchen together. 

The two boys build in silence together until Fred finally pops up. “Do you think Daisy doesn’t want to be in our family?”

“Dunno.” Tom shrugs uncomfortably. “Don’t think she really gets a choice in the matter though.”

“But Daisy loves me.” He says it more like a question.

“Yeah.” He digs through the barrell of legos. “Girls are weird though.”

Fred gets up suddenly. “Want to meet Daisy’s boyfriend.”

Tom yanks him back down. “Sit. You don’t actually.”

“Is he nice?”

“He’s fine but you don’t need to meet him. He’s just going to talk down to you all annoying like,” Tom explains. “And Daisy will start fawning over you, showin’ off.”

Fred sulks and starts pushing legos around aimlessly. “…She _is _our sister, right?” 

Tom thinks about it. “Yeah.”

“And she’s the baby’s sister?”

“Yes, Fred.”

Fred uses one large lego to mow down a bunch of small legos, swiping them off the coffee table. “Is Alec our dad now?”

“No,” Tom says quickly. “I mean. We have a dad. Sort of.”

“But we _don’t _have a dad if he’s not _here_,” Fred argues.

Tom sighs. “It’s complicated. We _had _a dad I guess. And he was a good dad. He just wasn’t a good person. But we didn’t know it.”

“How can you be a good dad but not a good person?”

“Dunno.” Tom shrugs. “You just can." 

Fred thinks about this for a moment. “Why would Mumma love someone who’s not a good person?”

Tom sighs, trying to focus on his lego architecture. “She didn’t know he wasn’t a good person.”

Fred is quiet again for a spell. “What if Alec’s not a good person?”

“Um. He is.”

“How do you know? Mumma thought our dad was.” 

“Well. I dunno, ‘cause now she knows, I guess. We all learn from our mistakes. Hopefully.” 

Tom glances down the hall toward the kitchen, wishing to god Daisy would come relieve him.

“Are we mistakes?” Fred asks.

“Well, _I _wasn’t,” Tom laughs.

“I wasn’t either!” Fred exclaims, offended.

“God, fine, no, you weren’t either.”

Daisy and Colin come treading down the hall. “We’ll be upstairs!” She calls after them as they head up.

Tom stands, intent on doing something about this. But he doesn’t know what.

*

Alec and Ellie sit with a prawn cocktail appetizer and oysters between them, which she is intent upon devouring.

“Easy on the shellfish there,” he warns her. “’s not good for the baby.”

She glares at him. “Been pregnant once or twice before, you know.”

“Sorry.” He watches her eat one, then has one himself. “Look nice, by the way.”

“_I _do?” She smiles, then looks down at her dress. “Clearance rack, thank you very much. Loose-fitting enough that I might get away with wearing it for another month or so. If I’m lucky.”

He has another prawn, and so does she. “Reckon the kids are all right?” He asks

“Oh, please. They hardly need us when we _are _there, they’ll be fine,” she replies. “We must enjoy our nights out when we can, while we can. Babies aren’t very romantic you know.”

“I remember,” he grumbles.

“Ours at least will be cute.”

He smiles. “Fred certainly was.”

“Oh, like you noticed. You could barely remember his name.”

“I knew his bloody name, Ellie,” he insists. “”m just an arsehole.”

“Well that’s certainly true enough.”

“Fred was exactly the baby version of you,” Alec says, thinking back.

“Mm, not exactly,” Ellie says quietly. “Got Joe’s eyes, he has.”

“_Your _nose.”

She snorts. “Poor child.”

“Your startlingly perfect nose.”

Ellie blushes. “Think the candlelight’s doing your eyes in.”

Alec seizes that excuse. “_Exactly_, it’s the candlelight, that’s all,” he says, patting the reading glasses in his pocket.

“No, _that’s _not the candlelight, that’s you getting old,” she replies evenly, leaning back in her chair.

“Not very nice.”

She brings her water glass to her lips and smiles. “I disagree. I quite adore my grumpy old man Hardy,” she says. “Besides, men get more handsome with age, everyone knows that. More distinguished. I find you quite fetching with your reading glasses on.” 

“Oh yeah?” He pulls them out of his pocket again and puts them on for her benefit. “This doin’ it for ya?”

She wiggles her eyebrows and nods. “Oh, go on and cuff me, DI Hardy.” She brings her foot back to his ankle and slips it into his trouser leg.

He groans and scolds her. “_Eleanor_.”

She gasps, jaw dropped and immediately removes her foot. “Never said _that _before.”

“Well, you’re being very badly behaved,” he explains, silently wishing she’d put her foot back there.

_Challenge accepted_, she thinks. “Oh you think so?” She lifts her leg under the table and places her foot in his lap. He jumps a little. “How badly behaved _am _I?”

“Uh.”

The server approaches and genially refills their water glasses. They smile at him placidly until he walks away again. She rubs her toes against his crotch.

“_Nnng_.” He grips onto his water glass too tightly. “Not shaggin’ you in the loo, El.”

She shrugs. “Was thinking maybe the car." 

His eyes widen.

*

“Maybe you should phone Mrs. Latimer.”

Tom blinks at his brother.

“Mumma said if you need something ‘urgent’ to phone Mrs. Latimer,” Fred explains. "What's urgent?"

“This isn’t what she meant,” Tom replies. Although it does give Tom an idea. He pulls out his mobile.

“Are you phoning Mrs. Latimer?”

Tom is typing out a message. “Texting Chloe.”

“Can she bring over Lizzie?” 

“_No_, Fred. Just play with your legos.”

*

Alec flags the waiter down. “Hi, sorry, we just need to step out for a few minutes, make a call, but we’re not runnin’ out on you, see?” He takes his credit card out of his wallet and places it down on the table as insurance. “We’ll be back by the time our meals come out.”

The waiter mostly just shrugs and nods. Alec gets up and reaches for Ellie’s hand.

“We know the owner, you can trust us!” She informs him, trying not to laugh as Alec yanks her along and away from the table.

*

Tom is still waiting for a reply from Chloe when Fred asks to watch an episode of _Peppa Pig_. Truth be told, he’s relieved. It will get his brother off his back for twenty minutes and by then it’ll be just about time for bed anyway.

He switches on the telly and sets an episode playing. Fred hops onto the couch and watches happily. And quietly.

*

The second they exit the restaurant, Alec pushes her back against the brick wall and kisses her. He’s fully hard by the time the kiss finishes.

“Can’t just have a simple meal out on the town,” he says, shaking his head, reaching around to cup her arse. “You’re an absolute disaster.”

She smirks. “To be fair I had no idea you’d actually be up for it. Thought I’d just tease you a bit for fun and then we’d have a little _more _fun when we got back home.”

He grabs her hand again and drags her to the car. “Shouldn’t’ve had those oysters.”

She throws her head back and laughs.

* 

Chloe shows up at the front door at 7:35, without having texted back at all. Tom lets her in.

“They’re upstairs?” Chloe asks.

“Yeah.” Tom looks back at Fred, hoping he’s so engrossed in the television that he won’t notice that Chloe is here. This appears to be the case.

“I’ll handle it."

Chloe goes bounding up the stairs. Tom stays where he is, watching her go.

About twenty seconds later, Chloe comes back down the stairs followed by Colin, having grabbed him by the ear. She drags him all the way down the stairs. Daisy runs after them.

“_What _are you _doin'_?”

“You’re meant to be babysittin’ and your dad will hang you out to dry if he gets word _he _was here,” Chloe explains.

They reach the bottom of the stairs, and the commotion has gotten even Fred’s attention. He comes into the hall. 

“Is this the boyfriend?!?!”

Chloe scoffs. “Not for much longer if Hardy finds him here.”

Chloe lets go of Colin’s ear, and Colin looks at Daisy. “You said your parents knew we were here.”

Chloe rolls her eyes at him. “What teenage girl’s parents would be okay with that?”

“I’m Fred!” Fred says, apropos of nothing.

“Hi,” Colin says to him.

“Colin’s just leaving,” Chloe tells Fred. “Aren’t you, Colin?” 

Colin looks around at all of them, then nods. “Yeah. See you at school, Daize.”

They all watch him go out the front door.

*

Alec moves the car to a more secluded area of the car park. Then he grabs the winshield sun shade and sets it up in the front window, just for a little extra privacy. Not that there are many people out on a Tuesday night.

Ellie crawls into the backseat.

“Take your knickers off,” he demands, crawling into the backseat after her.

She pushes up her dress over her hips and does as she’s told, positioning herself against the door. He unbuckles his trousers and yanks them down. She reaches a hand into his briefs.

“Fairly certain this counts as public indecency,” she says breathlessly.

“Given that we _are _the police, ‘m not too worried.” He pulls his briefs down as well. “Anyway this won’t take long.”

She laughs. “What every woman longs to hear as her fella – “ He parts her thighs and pushes inside of her. She gasps. “ – penetrates her in the backseat of his car.”

“This is_ your_ car,” he reminds her, groaning with pleasure.

“Whatever.”

He doesn’t waste any time thrusting inside her. She reaches out for something to hold onto and can only manage to grasp at the front seat. She rests her foot on the console between the two front seats to keep from sliding down as he keeps pushing her between the seat and the door

“Ow. Jesus.”

He looks at her and slows down a bit. “Sorry. All right?”

She reaches back to rub her neck. “Sit back.”

They sloppily reposition themselves so that he’s sitting upright and she’s straddling him. “All right for you?”

He reaches to massage her breasts through her cotton dress. “Uh, yeah.”

“Good.” She takes control and starts moving over him. She pushes into his hands and kisses him. “’Sposed to be _upholding the law_.”

He moans into her lips. “We’re off-duty.”

She moves faster, pushing herself up on her knees to take him even deeper.

“Fuck, El.”

“Don’t want our meals to get cold.”

He had nearly forgotten. “Right.”

She strokes his nipples through his dress shirt as his hips buck into her wildly. “Almost – “ He says.

“Come for me, Detective Inspector,” she whispers in his ear, and her hot breath on his skin pushes him closer to the edge. Then she adds, “I could eat a bloody horse.”

Though it’s an unfortunate line to do it on, he comes then, and she kisses him through it. He circles his arms around her waist, holding her to him.

“Might be a record,” she says casually. "I'd call it speed but let's go with 'efficiency'."

“You didn’t, uh…”

She lifts herself off of him and reaches for some napkins in the glove compartment. “No, but I had an awfully good time.” She hands a couple to him as well.

They clean themselves up and each pull their underthings back on. “Sorry,” he says, a bit sheepishly.

“No bother.” She straightens out her dress. “You can do me later.” 

She opens the back door of the car and stumbles out onto the pavement. He pulls on his trousers, fastens them, and follows her out. She takes his hand as they walk back into the restaurant.

*

Daisy runs back up the stairs and slams her bedroom door. Tom sighs and Fred looks up at Chloe with his big eyes. 

“She’s just havin’ a hard time dealin’ with all the change right now,” Chloe explains to them, a bit reluctantly. “The movin’ in, the baby, exams comin’ up, keepin’ up with Colin. She’ll be fine.”

“Doesn’t she like living with us?” Fred asks.

“Course she does, Fred.” She kneels down to his level. “But you know how sometimes you like to have alone time with your mum?”

Fred nods.

“Daisy might be missin’ some of that with her dad now.”

Tom frowns. “You mean like she doesn’t see him enough?”

“Sort of. They’d only been in Broadchurch a few months when he took up with your mum, you know,” Chloe reminds them. “Reckon things became all about her for a bit.”

“All about our mum?” Fred asks.

“Yeah.” Chloe stands up straight again, but is still directly addressing Fred. “But it’s okay, it’s what happens when you fall in love, nobody did anythin’ wrong.”

“When you fall in love you want to be together all the time,” Fred says, proud that he actually understands something.

“Right.”

Tom rolls his eyes. “Mum and Alec were already together all the time, even before they were together. Only difference is now they’re gross about it.”

“It won’t last. Old people can only be mushy about each other for so long so they like to enjoy it while they can. Anyway, don’t worry,” Chloe says, ruffling Fred’s hair. “I did the rebellious thing for a while too and I came out of it fine.”

Tom and Fred are both quiet, considering all of this carefully.

“D’you want me to stick around?” She asks, looking at Tom. “Can help get Fred off to bed." 

“Nah.” Tom shakes his head. “I can do it. Thanks for coming over, Chlo.”

*

Ellie and Alec make it back to their table just as their meals arrive, which they both find endlessly amusing.

“The things we get away with,” Ellie muses, digging into her carbonara.

He stabs at his salmon with his fork. “This is just the universe cuttin’ us a break after all of our respective sufferin’.”

“What you’re saying is we get to be happy for a while.”

“And only a while,” he confirms, taking a bite. “We’ve bloody well paid our dues, El, think we’re allowed a shag in the car once in a blue moon.”

“Metaphorically speaking of course.” She points her fork at him.

“Of course.” He points his back.

Alec’s mobile vibrates and he pulls it out, noting the reproachful look she gives him. “If it’s not the kids, I’ll put it away.” He frowns at the screen. “Tom. Sounds like Daiz is feelin’ pretty poorly.”

“Oh, sweet girl.” Ellie puts her fork down. “You want we should get all this wrapped up and head home?”

Alec looks over his mobile at her. “All right with you?”

“Absolutely. I’ll go find our waiter.”

*


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!!

Alec insists on driving home. He always insists on driving when they’re not at work. It helps to define the separation between the two, which can frequently be difficult. Ellie holds onto his hand and regularly sneaks glances over at him as he drives, for she is never tired of his paternal instincts. Especially not now that he’s gotten her pregnant and she feels it on a chemical level.

“She’ll be fine, love.”

“’Having a rough night,’ he said. “A rough night, what does that _mean_?” Alec is clearly wracking his brain.

“It means she’s a teenage girl and she’s a bit of a mess. Which is exactly what she’s supposed to be,” Ellie says calmly. He looks over at her, needing to see the tranquil certainty on her face. “Eyes on the road.”

“Right." 

When they enter through the front door, the house is quiet. Eerily quiet. They’re usually intent upon keeping it that way, on the rare moments this happens, but not tonight. Alec takes her hand warily and slowly leads her up the staircase.

She laughs out loud. “God’s sake, Alec, we’re not in a horror film,” she says, then shouts: “WHERE ARE YOU ALL?”

“Fred’s room!” Tom’s voice calls back

They pop into Fred’s room first. Fred is in bed, in his pyjamas, and Tom is sitting on the edge of it reading him a book. Ellie’s heart leaps out of her body, does a few somersaults, then returns to its cavity. 

“Well, look at you, my sweet boys.”

Tom rolls his eyes. Fred leaps out of bed to hug her. She picks him up and holds him on her hip, which is getting increasingly difficult to do with the size of him.

“Daiz in her room?” Alec asks. 

“Yeah.”

As Alec starts to leave, Fred holds his arms out to him. Alec takes Fred from Ellie and the little boy wraps his arms around Alec’s neck.

“Daisy doesn’t want to be in our family,” Fred says glumly.

Alec and Ellie both grimace, eyes wide, as they share a look over Fred’s shoulder.

“Course she does, lad. She already _is_,” Alec replies.

“Come on, little love,” Ellie says, pulling Fred back into her own arms so Alec can go to his daughter. “Let us relieve Tom and I’ll finish your book for you, all right?”

Alec disappears into the hallway and Ellie brings Fred back over to his bed, depositing him carefully. 

“I’ll stay,” Tom says.

He crawls over his brother to lie on the bed with him as Ellie sits on the edge and picks up the book.

*

Alec knocks on Daisy’s door with slight trepidation.

“Go away!”

“Daiz, it’s me,” Alec says, his ear practically against the door.

After a brief moment, he hears, “Fine. Come through.”

He opens the door to find her sitting up on her bed, a notebook open in front of her. The page is nearly full with Alec can only imagine what. “That schoolwork or do we need to get you a journal?”

“Close the door,” Daisy demands, and Alec closes the door behind him.

“What’s gone on?” He asks. “Tom’s worried about ya, Fred thinks you don’t even want to be in this family. So what’s happened?”

Daisy sighs heavily. “Don’t want to tell you.”

“Well, you let me in here, so I think you do.”

Daisy closes her notebook and tosses it to the side. “Fine. Sit down then you’re making me antsy."

Alec sits on the edge of her mattress.

“…You left your date early?”

Alec offers her a smirk. “Well, my date came back with me, but…”

Daisy rolls her eyes. “_Dad_.”

“Yeah, Tom texted and we had our meals turned into takeaway, no bother.” He neglects to tell her that the most exciting part of their night out had already transpired anyway. They can eat anywhere.

“Stupid.” Daisy shakes his head and turns away. “Tom, that is.”

“What worried him?”

“Where’s El?”

“Fred’s room with the boys. You’re stallin’.”

She sighs dramatically once again and leans back onto her pillow. “I did somethin’ stupid. Asked Colin over.” Daisy watches her father’s face quickly turn red, his eyes narrowing. “We were just readin’ for exams, I swear, but it was…you know. Stupid. Weirded Tom out and just confused Fred and…Chlo came over and got rid of him." 

Alec is frowning as the story very vaguely unfolds, but he forces himself to be patient and let her speak.

“All happened pretty quickly.”

“Where were you?” Alec asks

“What?” 

“With Colin, when he came by, where were you?”

Daisy hesitates. “Kitchen for a bit. Then…upstairs.”

Alec sits up straight. “In _here_, in your room.”

“…Yeah. But I swear again we didn’t do anythin’,” Daisy insists. “It’d be too weird with Fred and Tom just downstairs anyway.”

“_What _would be too weird,” Alec demands, though he knows and dreads the answer.

“I…”

“_What _would.”

Daisy folds her arms across her chest in frustration. “You know. _What we do_, what people in relationships do.”

“This is not a relationship. Ellie and I are in a relationship. You and Colin are…are…” Daisy waits. “Just datin’.”

“Yeah, for six months,” Daisy retorts. “About as long as you and _Ellie _have been together.”

Alec shifts uncomfortably, but his discomfort does not take the place of his anger. “It’s different, and you know it’s different, so don’t you give me that shite, Daisy Hardy.”

“Ugh, this isn’t the point, can this not be the point please? Colin _left_, he was here all of thirty minutes,” Daisy replies, her cheeks gone red.

Alec forces himself to take a deep breath. “What’s the point, then.”

“The point is I think Colin was just here because…I dunno, I think I’ve been relyin’ on him as a…you know, like a distraction. So I don’t have to deal with all the other stuff,” Daisy admits. “That’s what Chlo thinks anyway.”

Alec nods slowly, as if he’s trying to catch up. “What other stuff?" 

“Dunno, everything, really. Exams, school. Mum always tryin’ to get me to move back. Movin’ in here, livin’ with boys suddenly. Ellie bein’ pregnant.”

“Yeah,” Alec has to admit. “It’s a lot, you’re right.” 

They’re both quiet for a moment.

“I’ll talk to your mum about the, um. Pressurin’ you to move back,” Alec says. “Didn’t know she was doin’ that.”

Daisy rolls her eyes. “Only always.”

“That I can take care of,” he says, silently cursing Tess. “Unless….you…_want _to move back?”

She shakes her head. “No. Rather live with boys than live with Mum,” she replies. “Although can’t say I’m looking forward to havin’ a screamin’ baby in the house.”

Alec smiles. “Yeah, me neither.” Then he wonders how serious she is. “Are you actually bothered by the baby?” 

Daisy looks away, holding a pillow in her lap. “Dunno. Not really, I guess. Bit weird though. Not one of those things you ever expect to happen, right? ‘Least nothin’ _I _expected to happen. You bein’ the way you are.” 

Alec half-laughs. “Yeah, can’t argue that.”

“I thought if _anyone _it’d be Mum who would…” She trails off. “Which honestly would be fine because that’d get her off my case but _you_…" 

Alec leans in. “Me what?”

She looks away, holding her pillow tighter. “You I just got back." 

* 

In Fred’s room, the Miller contingent of the family is lying altogether in Fred’s little twin size bed as Ellie reads them a Star Wars children’s book.

“Mum,” Tom interrupts.

She lays the book down. “Yes, lovely.”

“If Daisy decided she didn’t want to be with us anymore, would Alec leave too?” 

“Uh.” Ellie is rarely flummoxed by her children’s questions, but this is a sticky one right off the bat. “…No. Dunno what would happen exactly, but Alec’s not going anywhere. Think he’d be very sad not to have Daisy with us.” So sad that in fact she does not want to think about it. “But he’ll not leave us, that I can promise you.”

Fred snugges into her, his head on her chest, and yawns sleepily. “I like us all in my bed. Can you both sleep here tonight?”

Ellie chuckles. “Think we’d be quite _squished_.”

“S’okay,” Fred murmurs.

Ellie looks over Fred at Tom, smiling. He almost kind of smiles too. “Finish the book,” Tom requests. 

*

Alec believes he’s now feeling whatever it is that Ellie feels any time one of her boys mentions their dad. _Heart-wrenched_.

He can barely look at her. “We’ve not had enough time together, have we?”

Daisy shrugs. “Dunno.”

“Things did…expand fairly quickly for us, didn’t they. More things, less time.”

“Yeah, I guess." 

Alec rubs his eyes and massages his temple. “Thought you…thought it was just as well, that you’d _prefer _to have a little space. Bein’ almost seventeen. Wouldn’t want ole Dad hangin’ around.”

“Well, sometimes,” Daisy admits. “But you’re not so bad really. Kind of funny.”

Alec manages a smile. “_I’m _funny? ‘S that what you think?”

“You get a bit weird sometimes and it’s…you know. Funny.”

“Right.” Alec nods, as if he understands this clearly, though he does not. He’ll take it. “I’m sorry, Daiz. You wear everythin’ so well, you just…take things in stride, I’d no idea you were…feelin’ neglected.”

“Not neglected.” She is quick to clarify. She knows she has no idea what it feels like to be truly neglected, and has plenty of friends who _do_. “Just…would like a bit more of you, that’s all.”

“Well, consider it done.” He pats her knee. “I’m yours whenever you want me, you understand?”

“…Even when you’re busy with Ellie?" 

Alec throws his hands up a bit helplessly, thinking about it. “Ellie and I are never _busy_, really. We’re just…together. We’re very _together _when we’re together, I know, that’s just…what happens when you feel like you’re making up for lost time. But unless we’re at work, anything we’re doin’ we can do any time. You should feel free to interrupt us at will.” Daisy raises an eyebrow at him. “Well, within reason, then.” 

Daisy nods. Alec reaches for her hand and squeezes it. “All right, darlin’?”

“Thanks.”

“You still feel…all right with this whole, um. Arrangement, yeah?”

“What, you and El?” Daisy confirms.

“Yeah, this whole…you know. Little family we’ve got now.” 

“Right.” Daisy nods. “Yeah. It’s good.”

Alec raises both eyebrows at her, waiting for more.

“What? It’s good. Ellie’s amazing and Fred is adorable and hilarious and Tom is…well. Tom is easy to beat at video games.”

He smiles. “And the, um…the…"

“Baby?” Daisy offers.

“Yeah.”

She shrugs. “Dunno the baby yet but hopefully she won’t be a right pain the arse, eh?”

He smirks. “She will be if she’s anythin’ like her _mother_.”

Daisy grins. “Well, you should’ve thought of that before you – “ Her grin instantly turns into a frown. “Nevermind.”

Alec laughs, and the sound is a balm even to himself. Then Daisy sits up straight suddenly, remembering something from earlier.

“Oi. Fred thinks I don’t want to be part of the family?”

“…He’s five.”

“No, that’s on me, I…think he’s still awake?”

“Dunno, but we can go see." 

*

Ellie is on her third Star Wars book of the night when Alec and Daisy appear in Fred’s doorway. Alec worries his heart can’t take it, the amount of expanding and wrenching and breaking it’s done tonight. But the sight before him is exactly what he needs.

Ellie puts the book down and a half-asleep Fred raises his head from Ellie’s chest when he sees Daisy. Tom sits up a bit too, and is a bit embarrassed that he’s been caught in bed with his mother and little brother.

“Sorry,” Daisy whispers.

“Oh, come on in, love, we’re all wide awake here. Aren’t we, Fred?”

Fred rubs his eyes and nods. Daisy goes to sit on the end of the bed, just barely managing to find a spot on the crowded mattress.

“Fred Miller, do you know how much I love you?!" 

She reaches out and grabs his foot. He shakes his head, grinning.

“_So _much.” She opens her arms wide to denote the size. “As big as a light saber! As big as Kylo’s…spaceship thingy!”

Fred crawls over and flings himself at her. Ellie sits up, now relieved from the weight of him.

“As much as I love Kylo?” Fred asks.

“More than that.”

“Wow.”

“Just wanted to make sure you knew that.” She squeezes him. “Since you’re my brother and all.” 

Ellie and Alec look at each other from across the room with massive eyes, their mouths slightly open. She covers hers, terrified she’ll say something and ruin the moment.

Daisy looks at Tom. “You too, you know.”

Tom sits up and squirms a bit. “Yeah. You know. Same.”

Ellie is silently screaming.

“All right,” she says, wiping tears from her eyes. “You best get to bed now, little one.”

She stands. Tom crawls off of the bed, and Daisy gives Fred one last squeeze and stands up too.

“Come on now,” she beckons him, and he buries himself under the covers.

Fred looks at his entire family now standing in his room. “Can you all stay here tonight?”

They laugh.

“We’re all going to sleep in our own beds because we’re all too big for that, little love, _including you_,” Ellie says, tucking him in.

“Yeah,” Fred agrees. “I’m big now.”

She kisses his forehead, then takes a few step backwards. The rest of them do as well, all bidding Fred goodnight. They shuffle into the hallway, and Ellie is the last to exit the room, switching the lights off before she closes the door. 

Now they’re all just standing in the hallway awkwardly.

“Um,” Tom offers. “Gonna go to my room.”

“…Could get started on the next level,” Daisy suggests, referring to their video game.

“Yeah?”

Ellie looks at Tom and nods encouragingly. “Go on then. Finish your schoolwork in the morning,” she says. “Just this once.”

“All right.”

Tom and Daisy head for the stairs before Alec stops her. “D’you want to…I mean d’you want me to…”

Daisy chuckles. “Do I want you to come downstairs and just sit there watchin’ us play? No, Dad, I’m good,” she says. “But we could maybe do dinner tomorrow? You and me.”

Alec smiles. “Anywhere you like.”

Tom and Daisy continue down the stairs, leaving Alec and Ellie in the hallway. She’s still silently screaming with delight inside, and his face breaks out into a grin. He reaches out and pulls her into him.

“Oh my _god_,” she exclaims, slipping her arms around his waist.

He kisses her temple. “Yeah.”

After a moment, Ellie pulls back to look up at him, having mostly collected herself. “How’d it go with Daize?" 

He pulls away then takes her hand, leading her up to their own bedroom. “Bit amazed by her, to be honest, my girl.”

“And so you ought,” Ellie agrees heartily.

They reach their bedroom. He opens the door and steps back so she can go through first. “Except for she had Colin by tonight." 

Ellie gasps a little. “She didn’t.”

“Oh yes. And _in her bedroom _no less.” Alec closes the door behind them.

“Little minx,” she says, though she is grinning. Mostly at how grumpy this makes him.

He sits on the bed and starts taking off his shoes and socks. Ellie goes to the bureau and takes off her jewelry and pulls out her hair pins.

“Had the audacity to compare her little…thing with Colin to my relationship with _you_.”

Again, Ellie can’t help chuckling. “Sounds about right. Ah, young love…"

“’s not funny.” Divested off his shoes and socks, he goes to retrieve shorts and a t-shirt.

“No, not funny.” Ellie nods, biting her lip to keep from grinning.

“Have to talk to her more about that at another time,” Alec says, taking off his suit jacket. “Another time _soon_.”

Ellie raises an eyebrow. “About like…" 

“Well, I assume Tess has talked to her about that.” He frowns at the thought of it, and begins unbuttoning his shirt. 

“I would assume that as well but we both know we ought’nt.”

“Anyway, there’s the internet now,” Alec reasons.

She goes to him and turns his back on him, holding up her hair. “Unzip please.”

He unzips her dress and she goes back over to her bureau. “Just need to make sure she knows that I’ll not tolerate it in my house.”

“And where would you rather she do it?”

“Rather she not do it all!” He tosses his shirt in the hamper and then sends his undershirt along with it.

She lets her dress fall to the floor and steps out of it. “Don’t think it works like that.”

He fusses with his belt, trying and failing to get it off due to his distraction. She goes to him and pushes his hands away. “Relax, will you?” She unfastens his belt and pulls it off for him. “Tell me about something else. Tell me the good part, I know there’s a good part.”

“Well.” He takes off his trousers. “She thinks Fred’s hilarious and you’re amazing.”

“Quite right.” She digs around her drawer for a t-shirt.

“_Tess _has been on her about movin’ back apparently.” He pulls on a pair of pyjama bottoms. 

“No!” She gasps. “God, when is that woman going to stop trying to be the villain in everyone else’s stories?”

He sits down on the bed. She takes her bra off.

“But most interestingly, it seems she has most of all just been _missin’ _me,” he tells her.

She pulls the t-shirt over her head, and then her hand involuntarily goes to her heart. “_Oh_.” For the second time tonight she feels that heart leaps out of her and do some vague gymnastics before returning. She walks over, leans down and cups both his cheeks. “You must be relieved, eh?” She kisses him softly.

“’m not bloody _relieved_,” he replies, though it’s hard to be annoyed at her when her lips are brushing his.

She stands up straight. “That the only thing wrong with your daughter is that she _misses _you? That’s the dream.” He frowns. “Yes, I know, there’s plenty of guilt to be found in there, but focus on the good. Your daughter is fine. She adores you, likes having you around. ‘Bout the best you could hope for.”

She walks over to the master bathroom, then turns back to him briefly. “Am I in charge of the remote tonight or are you?”

He sighs. “You are.”

“Extraordinary the way you just cannot tell a lie.” She continues into the loo to wash her face.

He stays where he is, and just raises his volume. “I’ll need to spend more time with her.” 

“Please do!” She calls back, nearly shouting over the running water. “Give her all the time you like. I get you plenty.”

He’s quiet for a few moments, contemplative. Then he gets up and goes to the loo to brush his teeth when he hears her brushing hers.

“Might have a Tess trip ahead of me,” he says, gloomily. 

“Can’t be a phone call?” She looks at him and leans against the counter.

“Not if there’s somethin’ more goin’ on between her and Daize. I’ll have to go mediate.” He spits into the sink. “Dunno.”

“All right." 

She lifts herself up onto the counter next to the sink and watches him. “Think Tom’s really gotten attached to her, you know. Says a lot that he texted you. Good for him, I think. To have her around.”

He moves over and casually parts her thighs so he can stand between them. “_Was _good of him, wasn’t it.”

“Thank god his empathy is finally developing,” she says, laying her palms on his chest. “Kind of stalled out there for a year or so, after…everything.”

Alec nods. “Meanwhile Fred feels _everything_. Just like you do.” He places his hands on her bare thighs and squeezes them. She never did put her pyjama pants on.

“Well.” She tilts her head to the side. “He did spend his earliest years watching me have one breakdown after another. He’s got no fear of emotions, I’ll bet.”

“Isn’t it nice?” He asks. “_Not_ doin’ that anymore.” 

“Are you admiring my lack of emotional breakdowns?” She inquires with amusement.

“I just mean.” He thinks about it. “Sort of touched on this earlier at the restaurant, but doesn’t it feel like…things’ve gone back to normal? Emotionally, I mean. Obviously both our lives are very different than they were before we met, but – after all that, things’ve evened out. Day to day.” 

She smiles, a bit overwhelmed by her adoration for him. “This is what you meant when you said we get to be happy now.” 

“Yeah.”

“Yes.” She snakes her arms up around his neck. “It _is _nice.”

He leans down and kisses her softly. Then he just looks at her and aimlessly runs his hands up and down her thighs.

“What?” She asks. 

“Nothin’. Just glad all that’s over.” He kisses her cheek and she smiles. “Quite enjoy our life now.”

“Yeah, not bad,” she agrees. She runs her hands up and down his chest. It feels like they’re leading up to something, but neither of them makes any move beyond what they’re doing. Quite content in fact to be where they are.

“El.”

She grins. She loves it when they’re already talking, already looking at each other, and still he feels the need to say her name to get her attention. As if he doesn’t already have all of it. 

“Yes.”

“Did you think it would be like this?” He asks, and she can see it’s causing him the tiniest modicum of pain to ask such a vulnerable question. “You and me. Once it dare I say _finally _happened.”

“Well, it _was _somewhat inevitable that it would, wasn’t it?”

“Probably. But did you think that once we did, that it would…”

“Are you asking me if I think there’s a world in which our…_thing _was more…_casual_?” She questions. He doesn’t respond. “Yes, I suppose so. A world in which we’d…come together but never talk about it. In which we’d still be so emotionally scarred from our respective pasts that we never quite get around to talking about what it _means_ and therefore never quite move forward, beyond all the shagging and the occasional packet of chips on the beach that only _I _would eat. Then Daisy goes to uni and you move away to become a CS somewhere and I finally get my promotion then meet some impossibly handsome, I don’t know, solicitor. You and I text for a while, and you might pop back into town for the occasional visit during which time we have a very illicit shag at the Trader’s despite my committed relationship with the boring but lush solicitor. And twenty years go by, twenty years of us fucking in motel rooms two or three times a year, never talking about our feelings, and then one of us dies.” She looks up at him expectantly. “Is that what you mean?” 

His jaw had dropped somewhere in the middle of her speech and he’s got no words prepared to come out of his mouth.

“…Take it that’s _not _what you meant, then.” She flashes him a slightly sheepish and apologetic smile.

He blinks at her. “Actually s’pose I _did _mean something like that only I hadn’t fleshed out the thought quite so…meticulously.”

She shrugs. “Yes, I think that could have happened.”

“Why didn’t it?”

“I hate to admit this and I can almost guarantee I’m going to regret it, but I think because of your little disappearance after Joe’s trial ended.” He is astonished and she doesn’t let herself look at his face so she can continue. “I know, I know. But I _think_…I think that gave us time to…I dunno, grow a bit. Heal a bit. Spend a little time with ourselves, with who we’d each become after our respective…well, tragedies. By the time you came back, I think we were better equipped to handle this sort of thing. Love.”

He is totally flummoxed. “…Really." 

“Yeah. I think if we’d gone ahead and shagged back _then_, after we’d solved Sandbrook, which…not that I wanted to, or – " 

He smirks. “_I _did.”

“All right, fine, so did I, but I think if we _had_…we’d have still been too bloody traumatized to actually make a relationship work,” she says.

“Have you been thinking about this?”

She laughs, surprised herself. “Actually no. Just kind of flowed out of me.”

“Well, all right then.” His hands slide up a little farther to grab at her arse. “Remember when you wouldn’t let me touch you?”

She sighs heavily and averts her eyes from him.

“Ever,” he continues. “You would full on _recoil, _I’ve never seen such a violent reaction.”

“I know.” She looks down. “You have to remember, though, at that time…the last person who’d touched me with that kind of affection was…" 

“I know, love,” he says. “Think that’s why I kept tryin’. So that eventually _I _would be the last person who’d touched you like that. And you’d let me keep on doin’ it.” 

“Well.” She finally looks at him again. “I certainly let you do it now.”

“Thank christ almighty you do.” He kisses her, and moves one hand up from her arse until it’s between her legs, lightly fingering the fabric of her knickers.

“Good thing too ‘cause you can’t seem to go one minute without it,” she comments, smiling into his lips. “If I’d known then that touch was the best way to communicate with you, I might’ve done a thing or two differently.” 

He hooks a finger underneath the fabric and slides it up and down. She gasps with delight and he prepares to pull the knickers off her but she has other ideas. “I just remembered!” She exclaims. “Our takeaway boxes are still in the car!”

He sighs. “_That’s _what you’re thinking about right now?”

“Well we never ate _dinner_,” she whines a bit. He’s glaring at her and she flashes him a toothy grin. “What? I’m eating for two!”

“Uh huh.” He leans his forehead against hers, then removes his hand from its very intimate position. He brings both hands to the small of her back and keeps her close. “I love you very much.”

She touches his cheek lightly and her lips capture his. “I love _you _very much.”

He wants to kiss her again, but he can see very plainly how this will need to go. “…You want me to go get the food out of the car, don’t you.”

“…Would you?”

A few minutes later, she is tucked into bed when he returns to her, with two warmed up plates of food and the accompanying cutlery. He hands her a plate, then crawls in next to her.

“Thank you.” She kisses his lips, lingering for a second, then digs into her meal.

“What’ve you got cued up?” He asks, taking a bite of his reheated salmon.

“_Happy __Valley_,” she replies. “Comes highly recommended.”

He nods, then raises a seductive eyebrow at her. “I do still owe you, you know.”

She shrugs. “You’re good for it,” she replies happily, shoving a forkful of pasta into her mouth. “I know where you live.”

**


End file.
